Vikings coach: Hue will be a winner

As bleak as things look for the Browns, as woeful as their 1-22 record is since the start of the 2016 season, team owner Jimmy Haslam will hold onto Hue Jackson if he listens to Vikings coach Mike Zimmer.

Zimmer’s endorsement of Jackson goes beyond the 32-team coaching fraternity sticking together. The pair coached two seasons together in Cincinnati – Zimmer as the Bengals defensive coordinator and Jackson as their secondary/special teams coach in 2012 and then running backs coach in 2013. Zimmer was named Vikings head coach in 2014. Jackson was named Bengals offensive coordinator the same year.

“Hue and I are really close,” Zimmer said Oct. 25 during a conference call. “We’ve been in the same room a lot of times. He went to my daughter’s wedding. When we’re in the same town, we always end up seeing each other.

“Hue is a heck of a football coach. He’s tough. He’s smart. He’s a great competitor.”

“It means I paid him,” cracked Jackson when asked what Zimmer’s endorsement means to him. “Just kidding.

“Mike is one of my really close friends. He’s one of the best coaches in pro football because he can get guys to play and they play hard. He has a vision for his football team and the way they play defense is Mike Zimmer style.”

The Browns and Vikings meet at 9:30 a.m. Oct. 29 in London, England.

The Browns are 0-7 and last in the AFC North. The Vikings are 5-2 and first in the NFC North.

The Browns are last in the NFL in scoring, averaging 14.7 points a game. The Vikings defensively are fifth in points allowed, yielding an average of 17 points a game.

When Jackson and Zimmer meet at midfield at Twickenham Stadium, odds are good Jackson will be offering congratulations and Zimmer will be telling his pal to keep plugging.

“I know that it’s taking him a little bit longer than

what he anticipated, but he’s going to get that thing turned around,” Zimmer said. “That’s the kind of guy he is. He’ll never stop or relax until he gets it all right. Really, they’re not that far away. They’re really good on defense. They just turn the ball over offensively.”

The Browns have turned the ball over 19 times — six more times than any other team in the NFL. Part of the problem is Jackson is trying to break in rookie quarterback DeShone Kizer. Kizer has thrown 11 interceptions and lost two fumbles.

Zimmer knows what it’s like to break in a rookie quarterback, and he knows what it’s like to step into a mess, though the mess he stepped into in in 2014 in

his first year coaching the Vikings doesn’t compare to the disaster Jackson inherited in 2016.

The Vikings were 5-10-1 in 2013, but just a year earlier they finished second in the NFC North at 10-6. Jackson took over a 3-13 team in 2016. The Browns haven’t had a winning season since they were 10-6 in 2007.

Teddy Bridgewater was a rookie quarterback in 2014. He was 6-6 as a starter with 14 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions.

Bridgewater was the last pick of the first round three years ago. Kizer was picked 52nd in 2017.

“I was fairly fortunate that we had (former Vikings running back) Adrian Peterson

and the defense was pretty good,” Zimmer said. “We kind of brought along Teddy that first year. I think that’s what Hue’s trying to build there, too, but every situation really is different.”

Bridgewater sat the first two games as a rookie and took over in the second quarter of the third game when starter Matt Cassel suffered a broken foot.

Jackson deemed Kizer not ready to start before the second preseason game, but after Kizer started the third game in August, Jackson named the rookie his starter for the season opener. Kizer’s job was cemented, even if he really wasn’t ready, when Brock Osweiler was cut on Sept. 2.